Doubt
by John Patrick Shanley
Highlights
Awards & Recognition
Winner! 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winner! Four 2005 Tony Awards, including Best Play Winner! Five 2005 Drama Desk Awards Nominee: Three 2024 Tony Awards
What readers are saying
Readers appreciate the thought-provoking themes and complex characters of this play. Many find it a quick yet impactful read that inspires deep discussion about morality and doubt. While the writing is praised for its depth, some note that certain interpretations feel overly heavy-handed.
Synopsis
Set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, a nun is faced with uncertainty as she has grave concerns about a male colleague.
Press Reviews
"All the elements come invigoratingly together like clockwork in John Patrick Shanley’s provocative new play, Doubt, a gripping story of suspicion cast on a priest’s behavior that is less about scandal than about fascinatingly nuanced questions of moral certainty. Something rare for this season: a laudable new American play."
— Variety
"How splendid it feels to be trusted with such passionate, exquisite ambiguity unlike anything we have seen from this prolific playwright so far. Blunt yet subtle, manipulative but full of empathy for all sides, the play is set in 1964 but could not be more timely. In just ninety fast-moving minutes, Shanley creates four blazingly individual people. Doubt is a lean, potent drama… passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing."
— Newsday
"A beautifully balanced drama. Shanley is a writer working at the top of his craft, making the most of a muted but evocative palette in the pursuit of truth’s shadows. Here, for the first time in a long time, is a play that is about something."
— Chicago Tribune
Characters
| Character |
|---|
Sister Aloysius Beauvier 50s/60s. |
Sister James 20s. |
Mrs. Muller Around 38. |
Father Brendan Flynn Late 30s, working class, from the Northeast. |
Videos
Doubt – 2024 Tony Awards Clip
Available Editions
| Format | Price |
|---|---|
 Paperback · 1 | Buy |
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Print | — |
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Publication
Doubt is a American play written by John Patrick Shanley and published by Dramatists Play Service in New York, NY (2005).
Community Reviews
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Buy Play
1
Dramatists Play Service · 2005 · 72 pp
Performance Rights
Restrictions: Major Markets Plus (US) / Standard Plus Add'l Postcodes (UK)
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